


Spike and 19 More of My Buffyverse Faves, ft. a Venn diagram

by thenewbuzwuzz_nonfic (thenewbuzwuzz)



Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Gen, Meta, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-12 22:28:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28892919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thenewbuzwuzz/pseuds/thenewbuzwuzz_nonfic
Summary: Not fic.It's easy for me to name either one favorite Buffyverse character or 20 - there's no in-between. Here I talk about 20 of my faves: those who inspire me, those who are fun to watch, those who remind me of myself, and those who are just doing their best, man.
Kudos: 3
Collections: Fandom Snowflake Challenge





	Spike and 19 More of My Buffyverse Faves, ft. a Venn diagram

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Snowflake Challenge 2021, prompt 5 (promote a canon or talk about a part of canon that you love). thewiggins included a list of favorite Buffyverse characters in their first Snowflake Challenge post, and that got me thinking what my list would be. While I do have a favorite character and he's a big part of what has me hooked on the Buffyverse, there's also an amazing variety of other entertaining and inspiring characters in the 'verse -- another major reason why I enjoy the show. I'm not very familiar with "Angel", so this is mostly BtVS. Naturally, the occasion called for a diagram.

Some characters restore my faith in humanity, and I would be (I am) proud to be friends with people like them. I admire the courage and determination of Wishverse Giles as he keeps doing what he can to help people and never loses his belief in a better future, even when nobody would blame him for giving up. I admire the way Lorne and Tara choose kindness and find their own path despite their upbringing. Buffy is a wonderful, complex hero who tries so hard to do the right thing, does good selflessly, and kicks many butts worthy of kicking. Larry and Anne Steele don't have a lot of screen time, but their character arcs are very cool, and Larry gets extra points for being on Giles' team in the Wishverse. We don't see a lot of Katrina, either, and, to be honest, I'm mainly including her because I've been writing her, but she is smart and assertive and perfect for her role in the series. Oz is sweet and perceptive and can be very wise, not to mention, very fun because of his distinctive voice and sense of humor.

Some characters are just entertaining. It's fun to watch principal Snyder's over-the-top meanness and earnest pettiness and the way he clings to what control he thinks he has, in a world that is fundamentally out of his control. I get a kick out of Ethan's reckless trickster gusto for chaos (and the way he pines for his hot warlock romance of ages past while he's at it). I like Drusilla's otherworldly appearance and body language, her mixture of creepiness and naivety, and her poetic, offbeat voice. (Side note: she deserved better, and the rare Drusilla redemption arcs I come across in fic are always a joy.) I put Faith, Anya, and Illyria in the "doing their level best" circle, but they all could definitely be in the "fun to watch" category too. Much of my enjoyment of Faith is about how she interacts with Buffy, and, of course, it's always fun to watch a character who acts as confident as I wish I was, but is secretly all kinds of insecure and messed up. I like Faith's daring and her dedication to having a fun time, and her growth from season 3 to season 7. And, even though I would obviously never want to meet Angelus, I enjoy his snazzy style, his little fuckboy smirks, how amusingly full of himself he is, and, above all, how much fun he has.

I also put Angelus in the next category: characters I'm drawn to because I see myself in them. It's complicated in the case of Angelus: I would hope more divides than unites the two of us, but I vibe with his attitude towards inconvenient romantic feelings, and I've gotta respect his dedication to expressing himself in his creative hobbies (murder and psychological torture). I do think I have a lot in common with souled Angel -- the earnestness, the awkwardness, the navel-gazing, the tendency to make his own life difficult because that must surely be the right thing to do --, but none of it makes me like him, except for his excellent existentialist mottos. Andrew is relatable too, because he's a queer nerd who appreciates the finer qualities of Spike and has a certain tendency to escape from responsibility into stories, to see the world through a filter of tropes. The most fun thing about Willow for me is that the canon depiction of Willow's orientation is ambiguous enough that I've always read Willow's orientation as whatever I think my orientation is at the time. Also, Willow's character arc is breathtaking, I genuinely approve of her taste in clothes, and her struggles with insecurity/overconfidence and control issues are very interesting to me; if she was less flawed, I'd be less into her.

Some characters are just doing their best, man, when the world works in confusing ways or the odds are stacked against them, or maybe their best isn't very good. Since that's the most any of us can do, this always endears them to me. I love the way they try. There's a special place in my heart for the subset of characters who can't quite wrap their head around how this 'living like a human' thing is supposed to work, such as the Buffybot, soulless vampires like Spike and Harmony, ex-demon Anya, and ex-god-king Illyria. Same, guys, same. These characters are good at pointing out things that can be genuinely weird, hard, or unfair, but that we might not usually question. Why is death? How do you do right by other people, how do you live true to your best self, and how, doggone it, do you get everyone to like you, when you don't intuitively feel what the right thing would be? When you're scared of the end of the world as we know it and you've reached your capacity for worrying just by thinking about what might happen to yourself and the people you love, is it wrong not to feel more worried about everyone else? How to resist the sinister attraction of Spike's cold and muscular body?

The main reason why I like Spike, I think, is the way he tries to be a kind of man and inevitably fucks up, the way he slowly becomes (or allows himself to be, even though he really should be evil) kinder and more selfless than anyone expected of him. The way he *works* on being a decent person and not hurting the ones he loves. Going against expectations like that, challenging our very assumptions about what soulless vampires are capable of, is very punk rock of him. But there are many other reasons to like Spike, if you're me. He's resourceful and clever and thinks outside the box, which is why he can make alliances with Buffy and the Scoobies in key moments. I like his snark and attitude and the way, like Faith, he tries to play it cool but is semi-secretly just bursting with feels. It's fun to watch him because he *has* fun and enjoys life (well, undeath). He's good with words and knows about writing bad poetry. He's perceptive and insightful, and tells people truths they need to hear. Buffybot jokes aside, I'd like to note that I don't really have a personal opinion on whether he's physically attractive, but he sure is pretty and expressive, he has style, and it doesn't hurt, fic-devouring-wise, that he's definitely an attentive and creative lover when he's with someone he cares about. My real OTP, though, is Spike/Redemption. :)

**Author's Note:**

> What are your thoughts?


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